The AVP Cuervo Gold Crown Ft. Lauderdale Open gave the television audience a rare treat – a matchup of the number one and two seeds in the men’s finals. Both of the teams, top-seeded Mike Lambert and Stein Metzger as well as second-seeded Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal, played worthy of their billings throughout the tournament, with each dispatching their five opponents leading into the finals. And while that sounds like it should be more of a common occurrence, June of 2000 was the last time the top two men’s seeds met in the finals of an open tournament.

Fans who attend AVP tournaments in person are fortunate – they get to pick and choose from any of 122 matches they want to watch. They can direct their attention to the top few teams, or focus instead on some of their favorite players. But the people watching this match on TV might not realize it right away, but they are able to witness a match that capped off a dominating weekend performance. Gibb and Rosenthal came from behind to edge Lambert and Metzger in the first game, 25-23, then cruised to a 21-16 game two win. That win was just like their previous five in this season-opening tournament; it was a sweep. Since the start of 2002 there have been only two teams able to sweep every opponent en route to the title, with the other one being Eric Fonoimoana and Kevin Wong in Huntington Beach in 2004.

Gibb hopes this win vaults him to another big start early in the year, just as his win here did last season. In 2005, he and Metzger teamed up for the first time, and won their first two tournaments playing together before finishing the season with a team-high four victories. This year he teams up with Rosenthal for the first time, and they are off to an equally, if not a more, impressive start.

“We’re trying to end the lack of a dominant team on the Tour,” Gibb said afterwards. “Sean did things today I’ve never seen him do. He told me he was a tournament player and here he proved it. We’ve been working with Mike Dodd and he has done some amazing things with us.”

Apparently in addition to being able to play a little bit, winning 75 times and earning a silver medal in the 1996 Olympics, Dodd can coach a bit too. His 75 titles rank fifth on the career charts.

After the season opener, he has a new counterpart on the women’s side that ranks fifth in all-time wins. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won in Ft. Lauderdale, giving Walsh her 50th career win, tying her with Kathy Gregory for the fifth spot. May-Treanor and Walsh were the only one of the four teams in the two finals matches to have played together before on the AVP, as their opponent was Jennifer Boss and Nancy Mason.

The heat in Ft. Lauderdale was taking its toll on a lot of players, with cramping a prevalent problem. On top of the heat, Boss and Mason had their work cut out for them to reach the finals after a Saturday morning setback in the second round. That loss forced them to play a total of five matches on Saturday, then another four on Sunday, with six of their matches against teams seeded 10th or higher.

Their accomplishment to get that far should not be overlooked. Not since 2003 had a team seeded as low as eighth, which is what Boss and Mason were seeded, even reached the Final Four. And you have to go back to 2001 to find the last time one of those teams played in the finals. Unlike the men’s side, last season there was a stretch of six straight events where the top two women’s seeds met in the championship match.

“We’ve been flirting with each other for years,” Mason said of her partnership with Boss. “It was easy for us, we just naturally fit.”

Those two players teamed up during the last part of the international schedule, getting three fifths and a fourth place finish. Their best finish came in Acapulco, with similar conditions to this event in Ft. Lauderdale. In Acapulco they also lost in the second round (after playing two matches in the qualifier), and with high temperatures like in Florida, Boss had a heat-related illness that caused them to forfeit their semi-final match. But this go-around they were ready for the challenges that were presented.

In the first game, Boss and Mason led by as many as four points at 16-12, but the gold medalists scored seven of the next 10 to tie the game for the first time at 19-19. At game point, Mason capped off an incredible rally with one of her tournament-most digs, then putting the ball down for a 21-19 win.

The second game was back and forth early on, but with Boss and Mason leading 10-8, May-Treanor and Walsh went on a 9-2 run to take control of the game, and essentially the match as well. Boss and Mason closed the gap some, but were denied 21-19 to force a third game.

In the tie-breaker, Walsh had a couple of early blocks in helping her team jump out to an insurmountable 9-2 lead. Boss and Mason could not recover, falling 15-9 to give May-Treanor and Walsh their fourth straight victory in Ft. Lauderdale.

“Everyone is gunning for you,” May-Treanor said. “We wanted to do well in the first tournament and set the tone.”

“There are a lot of new teams out here,” Walsh observed. “It was tough, and we are definitely going through a readjustment period. We were making mistakes earlier and we just dug deep to win. We were starting the season at a high point, but we definitely need to do some fine tuning. This is a big one because of the large purse.”

It wasn’t just a large purse, it was the largest purse. The $50,000 awarded to the winning team marked the biggest payout ever for a domestic women’s event. For the men, the first-place earnings were the most since the 1997 season.

In 1997, Metzger was just getting started on the AVP Tour after winning three national championships at UCLA, while his current partner Lambert was just graduating from Stanford after leading them to a national title that year. In contrast, neither Gibb nor Rosenthal played college volleyball. Lambert represented the U.S. in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics in indoor volleyball, while Metzger was a beach volleyball Olympian in 2004. The closest Gibb has gotten to the Olympics was in 2002, when the Winter Games visited his home state of Utah, while Rosenthal played eight events with Mark Williams, who would later play beach volleyball in the Olympics for Australia.

In the first game, the top seeds looked invincible, getting out to leads of 12-6 and 15-10. But Gibb and Rosenthal did not wave the white flag. Instead, the duo stormed back to force a game point at 20-19 in their favor. Four game points were unsuccessful, but on the fifth try, Gibb rejected Lambert to seal the game 25-23.

In the second game, Lambert and Metzger won the first point, but would not lead again after that. Gibb added two more blocks that game while Rosie was digging anything that got past his blockers’ hands and was able to put down a lot of the transition kills. The second-seeds won the game 21-16 to become the fifth team in the last five years to win in their first tournament as partners. Gibb was also a member of the last team to do that, winning here last year with Metzger.

“Stein Metzger taught me a lot” Gibb stated. “Sometimes on the court he’ll tell me ‘I taught you too much.’”

This championship match was a rematch of the finals in Las Vegas last season. In that individual-format event, Lambert and Gibb were the top two players battling for the title. Lambert selected his partner first, and he chose Metzger, while Gibb selected Rosenthal. Lambert and Metzger won that match 21-18, 21-18.

“I’ve wanted to play them again since we lost to them in Las Vegas last year,” Rosenthal said. “I wanted to face them again this tournament. This time the outcome was different. I like coming in here and going to war with Jake – it just felt comfortable.”

While this is just one event, Gibb and Rosenthal have their sights set high for the future.

“We’re definitely positioning ourselves for the Olympics,” Gibb said.

Final Standings

Men

1. Jake Gibb / Sean Rosenthal, $50,000

2. Mike Lambert / Stein Metzger, $13,400

3. Dain Blanton / Eric Fonoimoana, $8,500

3. Dax Holdren / Sean Scott, $8,500

5. Karch Kiraly / Larry Witt, $5,500

5. John Hyden / Jeff Nygaard, $5,500

7. Jason Ring / George Roumain, $4,250

7. Nick Lucena / Mark Williams, $4,250

9. Hans Stolfus / Aaron Wachtfogel, $2,450

9. Paul Baxter / Fred Souza, $2,450

9. Phil Dalhausser / Todd Rogers, $2,450

9. Matt Fuerbringer / Casey Jennings, $2,450

 Women

 1. Misty May-Treanor / Kerri Walsh, $50,000

2. Jennifer Boss / Nancy Mason, $13,400

3. Annett Davis / Jenny Johnson Jordan, $8,500

3. Rachel Wacholder / Elaine Youngs, $8,500

5. Michelle More / Suzanne Stonebarger, $5,500

5. Jenny Pavley / Paula Roca, $5,500

7. Semirames Marins / Tatiana Minello, $4,250

7. Katie Lindquist / Tracy Lindquist, $4,250

9. Carrie Dodd / Barbra Fontana, $2,450

9. Nicole Branagh / Holly McPeak, $2,450

9. Brooke Hanson / Sarah Straton, $2,450

9. Angela Lewis / Priscilla Lima, $2,450